To conserve power during periods of light workload, a processor may be dynamically set to run at a lower frequency. For example, if a processor having a maximum frequency of 100 MHz encounters a light workload, the processor may be set to run at 80 MHz. If the workload increases, the processor's speed may be increased to accommodate the workload.
A performance utility that monitors a processor's utilization relative to the processor's current frequency may provide an inaccurate utilization measurement. For example, if the processor mentioned above is set to run at its maximum frequency of 100 MHz, a utilization measurement based on the current frequency is accurate. However, if the processor is set to run at the reduced rate of 80 MHz, a utilization measurement based on the current frequency is inaccurate by the ratio of the reduced frequency of the processor compared to the maximum frequency of the processor (e.g., 80/100).